The 2008–09 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team represented the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The head coach was
Roy Williams. The team played its home games in the
Dean Smith Center in
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...
, and was a member of the
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
. The team won the
2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament in which 65 schools competed to determine the national champion of the men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2008–09 basketball ...
, the fifth NCAA national title in school history.
Preseason
The Tar Heels were a trendy pick to win the National Championship that year, primarily because
Wayne Ellington,
Danny Green and
Ty Lawson decided to withdraw from the
2008 NBA draft, and consensus national Player of the Year
Tyler Hansbrough never declared for that draft. In addition, the players had been embarrassed in the previous season's
Final Four by Kansas, and they were motivated to atone for that poor performance. In the preseason ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll the Tar Heels were ranked #1. They were the first unanimous preseason #1 ranking in the history of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. UNC also received the first unanimous preseason #1 ranking in the history of the Associated Press Poll.
Recruiting
Roster
Schedule
The Tar Heels rolled through the nonconference schedule, along the way winning the
Maui Invitational
The Maui Invitational, currently known as the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, is an annual early-season college basketball tournament that takes place Thanksgiving week, normally in Lahaina, Hawaii, at the Lahaina Civic Center on the island of Maui. ...
for the third time. They sputtered out of the gate to start ACC play, dropping their first two conference games to
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...
and
Wake Forest. However, they recovered to reel off 10 straight conference wins, including a 101–87 thrashing of rival
Duke. Their only relatively close games during this stretch came against the ACC's two Florida teams—most notably against
Florida State, in which they escaped with a Ty Lawson buzzer-beater.
They lost to
Maryland in overtime, but recovered to win their last three games. A win over
Virginia Tech gave the Tar Heels at least a share of their 27th regular season title (which are not recognized by the ACC as official championships; the tournament winner is declared champion), and third in a row. They won the title outright with a season-ending win over Duke.
The
ACC tournament did not go nearly as well, largely because Ty Lawson was sidelined with an injured big toe. They needed a last-minute score to defeat Virginia Tech, then fell to Florida State in the second round. Still, the Tar Heels were rewarded with the #2 ranking in the final AP Poll, behind
Louisville. They also finished third in the final regular-season Coaches Poll, behind Louisville and
Memphis.
Despite not making it to the ACC title game, the Tar Heels received the top seed in the
NCAA South Region. It was the 13th time the Tar Heels had been selected as a #1 seed—the most since the NCAA began seeding the tournament field in 1979. It is also UNC's 41st NCAA appearance—tied with
UCLA for the second-most in history.
The Tar Heels played their first- and second-round games at the
Greensboro Coliseum, just an hour west of Chapel Hill. They easily dispatched
Radford
Radford may refer to:
Places England
* Radford, Coventry, West Midlands
* Radford, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
* Radford, Plymstock, Devon
*Radford, Oxfordshire
* Radford, Somerset
*Radford, Worcestershire
*Radford Cave in Devon
*Radford Semele, ...
and
LSU to advance to the regionals at the
FedExForum in
Memphis. In the regional round, the Heels dismantled
Gonzaga
Gonzaga may refer to:
Places
* Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy
* Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines
*Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil
*Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily
People with the surna ...
93–77. In the regional final, they defeated
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
72–60 to advance to the Final Four for the 18th time in school history—tied with UCLA for the most ever. The wins in the regional phase were also the school's 100th and 101st wins in the NCAA Tournament, passing
Kentucky for most all-time, although Kentucky has reclaimed the top spot as of 2019.
The Tar Heels were the highest seed to reach the Final Four at
Ford Field
Ford Field is a domed American football stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It primarily serves as the home of the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), as well as the annual Quick Lane Bowl college football bowl game, state champ ...
in
Detroit; they were the overall #3 seed in the tournament behind Louisville and
Pittsburgh. In the national semifinal, the Tar Heels pounded
Villanova 83–69 to advance to the national championship game for the ninth time in school history. They played against
Michigan State, whom the Tar Heels defeated 98–63 during the December 2008
ACC-Big Ten Challenge. They were no less dominant in the title game, winning 89–72 for the school's fifth NCAA national title—tied for the third-most all-time. The win capped off one of the most dominant runs in the tournament's history. The Tar Heels won every game by at least 12 points—a feat all the more remarkable since they upended four teams ranked in the top 15 of the final AP Poll in the process (#10 Gonzaga, #7 Oklahoma, #11 Villanova and #8 Michigan State). They also led for all but 10 minutes of a possible 240 minutes of game time. It also allowed Tyler Hansbrough and his fellow seniors to end their careers as the winningest class in school history.
Wayne Ellington was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, the fourth Tar Heel to earn the award.
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Regular season
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ACC Tournament
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NCAA tournament
Rankings
Team players drafted into the NBA
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2008-09 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team
North Carolina
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North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball seasons
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament championship seasons
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